LEWISTOWN — The Judith Mountains are about 50 miles to the northeast. And Square Butte, 80 miles to the northwest. About 100 miles straight north are the Bear Paw Mountains.

Laurie Lohrer, an avid hiker, is pointing out the iconic central Montana landmarks while standing in snowshoes on a rocky ledge at Half Moon Canyon high in the Big Snow Mountains Wilderness Study Area. The WSA, also the source of this community’s water, offers unrivaled views, and it’s quiet.

“It’s a real great place to sort of recharge, and be in awe of the real world — the natural world,” said Lohrer, who loves the serenity of the place and listening to the wind through the pines and watching raptors overhead.

A bill by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont. would release five wilderness study areas (WSAs) in forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service totaling 449,500 acres, including the 91,000-acre Big Snowies Wilderness Study Area that Lohrer hiked to one day last month.

The legislation, if passed, would open the WSAs to motorized and mechanical uses that are now off limits or restricted.

The Montana Wilderness Association argues the bill, if passed, would result in the biggest loss of protected public lands in Montana’s history.

“It’s really hard to take it back to a potential wilderness areas, if not impossible,” said Lorher, a MWA member who lives on a small farm outside of Lewistown.

“It’s really hard to take it back to a potential wilderness areas, if not impossible.”

Laurie Lohrer

The bill is backed by motorized use groups, Republican leaders in the state House and Senate and several county governments, who want to see more access and active forest management in these areas.

They’re fed up with inaction by Congress.

“This is addressing an issue that is currently 35 years overdue,” Daines says of the legislation.

The bill will be heard by members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday.

Chapter One

Wilderness worthy?

WSAs have wilderness characteristics, and carry restrictions, but not the same level of protections as wilderness.

Nine WSAs on Forest Service lands totaling 973,000 acres were created by the Wilderness Study Act of 1977.

The Forest Service was charged with studying the land and given five years to make recommendations on whether it qualified as wilderness, a designation only Congress can make and the highest level of conservation protection for federal lands.

“Here we are and this issue is not resolved even though the Forest Service has studied it with lots of public input and deemed these areas as not suitable for wilderness,” he said.

While the 1964 Wilderness Act created the idea of what constitutes wilderness — “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man" — the 1977 Wilderness Study Act, preserved the option to create additional wilderness in the future, said Mark Good of the Montana Wilderness Association’s Island Range Chapter in Great Falls.

In the meantime, the Forest Service was required to manage the WSAs for their wilderness character to preserve the option for Congress to designate wilderness in the future, Good said.

“Here we are and this issue is not resolved even though the Forest Service has studied it with lots of public input and deemed these areas as not suitable for wilderness.”

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont

The 1977 WSA bill gave the Forest Service five years to study the lands and make recommendations on wilderness, but Congress doesn’t have a deadline, Good noted.

“Only Congress can take away that designation, and that’s what Senator Daines is proposing to do for these five areas,” he said.

One criteria he used in deciding which WSAs to include in the bill was whether the Forest Service determined the land was unsuitable for wilderness in forest plans, Daines said.

In 1982, for example, the Forest Service recommended non-wilderness management for the Middle Fork Judith and Big Snowies WSAs in central Montana.

Chapter Three

MWA: WSAs protect land

However, the Big Snowies WSA is recommended as wilderness in the proposed action in a new forest plan being written in Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, where the Big Snowies and Middle Fork Judith WSAs are located.

The Middle Fork Judith is not recommended for wilderness in that plan, which is in draft form.

A final plan is expected to be released in March, said Kathy Bushnell, a spokeswoman for the forest. Nothing has been decided yet in regard to the wilderness recommendations.

In 1988, the Big Snowies was among WSAs included in a wilderness bill passed by Congress but vetoed by President Ronald Reagan.

MWA’s Good says the WSA designation is important to maintain.

“If you want to make a wilderness area, make it a wilderness area. If you are not going to make it a wilderness area, put it back into public use.”

Alan Olson, Montana Petroleum Association executive director

The designation prevented oil exploration in the Big Snowies in 1986 when Shell Oil applied for more than 49,000 acres of oil and gas leases, he said. The designation also was used in denying a 1996 request by Cominco to explore for copper and zinc, he said.

Alan Olson, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association, said he’s frustrated by how long the WSAs have remained in limbo.

“If you want to make a wilderness area, make it a wilderness area,” Olson said. “If you are not going to make it a wilderness area, put it back into public use.”

The association supports the WSA-release bill.

Some of the WSAs should be open to oil and gas exploration, timber harvesting and more forms of recreation, Olson said.

CLOSE

The wilderness study area designation protects public land from development and potentially allows for them to be designated as a wilderness area by Congress. Montana has 44 wilderness study areas statewide.
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Chapter Four

Big Snowies 'intact'

Of the 3.5 million acres of Montana’s wilderness, just 32,000 acres is located east of the continental Divide, Good said.

Passed in 2014, that bill designated 208,000 acres in Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest as a Conservation Management Area and added 67,000 acres in new wilderness to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, the state’s first new wilderness in 31 years.

Part of that bill, included at Daines’ request, was the release of the Zook Creek and Buffalo Creek BLM WSAs in southeastern Montana, totaling 14,000 acres.

Daines says he wants to strike a balance when it comes to re-working WSAs and creating more wilderness.

Since the 1977 Wilderness Study Act passed, the state has added 1.8 million acres of wilderness and released about 100,000 acres from wilderness study areas, he said.

“That equation seems a bit out of balance to me,” Daines said. “I’m hoping what we can do is restore some balance."

Chapter Five

Tired of 'inaction'

The other criteria Daines said he used in deciding what WSAs to include in the bill was local support.

Laurie Lohrer of Lewistown walks along south-facing cliff absent of snow while on a snowshoeing hike in the Big Snowy Mountains Wilderness Study Area in the Lewis and Clark National Forest near Lewistown recently.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/RION SANDERS)

Support for the bill has come from the Judith, Fergus, Ravalli and Beaverhead county commissioners, Great Falls-based Russell Country Sportsmen’s Association, Montana Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen, Senate Majority Leader Fred Thomas, the Great Falls Trail Bike Riders Association, Montana Snowmobile Association, Capital Trail Vehicle Association and Citizens for Balanced Use.

“Our hope is it would open up some abilities to do some mechanical treatments, controlled burns, whatever it takes to mitigate the danger of catastrophic wildfires.”

Ross Butcher, Fergus County commissioners chairman

The Forest Service needs more leeway in treating the land to address fire danger, he said.

“Our hope is it would open up some abilities to do some mechanical treatments, controlled burns, whatever it takes to mitigate the danger of catastrophic wildfires,” he said.

He appreciates efforts to come up with a permanent solution to a temporary designation he says has languished for decades.

“Our perspective is inaction isn’t good policy, that it should be opened up to some public discussions on what we want to see done with these lands,” Butcher said. “Then it allows the federal agencies to actually manage them in some fashion.”

Chapter Six

Who supports this?

Opponents are questioning the advertised support for the legislation.

“This bill was a complete surprise,” said Dave Byerly, a member of the Lewistown City Commission.

“Other than some motorized recreationists that want access to the Snowies and maybe some people who are just anti-wilderness in general, I’ve heard no discussion in our community, ‘We got to get this out of the WSA.”

Dave Byerly, Lewistown City Commission member

As far as he is aware, Daines did not solicit input from the general public in Lewistown.

The Big Snowies WSA is south of Lewistown.

“I don’t know who Senator Daines — and I like Senator Daines — I don’t know who he’s been talking to about this,” Byerly said. “Other than some motorized recreationists that want access to the Snowies and maybe some people who are just anti-wilderness in general, I’ve heard no discussion in our community, ‘We got to get this out of the WSA.’”

Some 90 percent of the county is open to snowmobiles and motorcycles, he said. And being the source of the town’s renowned high-quality drinking water, the Big Snowies are worthy of protection, he said. It’s no coincidence areas with wilderness have the most vibrant economies because those outdoor amenities attract economic development, Byerly adds.

Mark Good, right, of the Great Falls-based Island Range Chapter of the Montana Wilderness Association, opens a gate while snowshoeing in the Big Snowy Mountains Wilderness Study Area near Lewistown.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/RION SANDERS)

“In fact, from an economic development standpoint our public lands and the Snowies are really important to attracting both employers and employees to our community,” Byerly said. “The Snowies, as they are now, are an important part of our quality of life.”

Granite County commissioners wrote a letter to Daines Dec. 19 in which they said they would not support his request for support of the bill after hearing from 20 residents who objected to the repeal of the Sapphire WSA.

Members of Daines’ staff had requested an appointment on the commissioners’ agenda to request a letter of support for the repeal of the Sapphire WSA.

“This Board voted unanimously to request that you obtain more public discussion on WSAs in general, and specifically on the Sapphire WSA,” commissioners wrote. “Granite County would be willing to host, at your convenience, a forum for you to receive public comment and discussion on this topic that is so vitally important to the citizens of Granite County and to all Montanans."

Chapter Seven

Open meeting violations alleged

Opponents of the WSAs also are accusing commissioners in Fergus, Judith Basin and Beaverhead counties of violating open meeting laws for penning letters of support for the idea without first gathering input at noticed public meetings.

“We can find no record of any noticed public meeting where the Fergus County Commission acted on the above proposition, even though it has the potential to significantly impact the community and way of life in Fergus County,” 13 Lewistown residents wrote to commissioners Jan. 29, referring to the commission’s letter of support for the concept of releasing the WSAs.

In a Jan. 29 letter to Judith Basin County commissioners, Hugo Turek of Coffee Creek cited a statement by the commission in support of removing the WSA classification for the Middle Fork of the Judith Basin River in the Little Belt Mountains.

Open meeting laws affect decisions on issues over which commissioners have jurisdiction, and obviously federal lands are not the jurisdiction of county commissioners, Butcher said.

County commissioners are elected officials who can have opinions on issues that affect the county, he said.

Butcher says he has no problem having a forum on the issue but says most of his constituents will be in agreement with the county’s position, and it won’t cause commissioners to rescind the letter of support.

Chapter Nine

Daines: Access restricted

The problem with WSAs, Daines said, is the Forest Service is required to manage them for their wilderness characteristics until a decision is made on whether they should be wilderness.

That’s a roadblock to good forest management, he said, and restricts access to some segments of the forest-using public such as those who use snowmobiles, mountain bikes and off-road vehicles.

“This is why we’ve seen an outcry from Montanans saying, ‘Let’s release these WSAs,'” he said. “It is 35 years overdue.”

Generally, recreational uses in WSAs date to what was allowed in the area when the original WSA Act was passed and what was allowed through travel planning efforts many years ago, said Bushnell, the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest spokeswoman.

Recreational uses occurring in the Big Snowies WSA include hiking, snowshoeing, horseback riding, snowmobiling, mountain biking and some motorized use on off-highway vehicle and old jeep trail type roads, she said.

Daines says snowmobile routes have been reduced by 60 percent in the Big Snowies WSA, and that nine motorized routes open to full-sized vehicles were reduced to three.

Uses such as those can be reconsidered without the WSA designation, he said.

Chapter Ten

BLM WSAs may be added

Montana has 44 WSAs.

The Forest Service manages seven.

An additional 37 WSAs totaling 430,407 acres are overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.

The legislation affects five of the seven Forest Service-managed WSAs.

“I think it’s as suitable for wilderness as any place,” Tim Faber, a carpenter and Big Sandy native, said of the Big Snowies WSA.

Faber, who leads hikes through the Big Snowies WSA for MWA, opposes the bill.

On his first hike into the Big Snowies in the late 1980s, Faber saw mountain goats as he stood on Knife Blade Ridge.

Laurie Lohrer, right, Mark Good, center, and Tim Faber enjoy the view of central Montana from an elevation of 6,000 feet in the 91,000-acre Big Snowy Mountains Wilderness Study Area in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/RION SANDERS)

The Big Snowies, he says, are as primitive as any place in the country. Faber says he's noticed more snowmobiles venturing farther into the wilderness study area.

A study by the Wilderness Society concluded it was wilder and more quiet than 95 percent of the country’s national parks.

Laurie Lohre, a self-described outdoors afficionado, hunts, hikes, fishes and skies and lives on a small farm northwest of Lewistown. She once was marketing manager working in the seafood industry for the Port of Seattle. She moved to the Lewistown area 15 years ago and never looked back.

As corny as it may sound, Lohrer says, a place such as the Big Snowy Mountains, where it’s rare to hear man-made sounds, is good for the soul, and she doesn't want to see it change.

“I mean what a day,” she says as she looks out across central Montana at Half-moon Pass after accessing the Big Snowies WSA at the Uhlhorn Trailhead.